Re: Church History for Dummies

That is in reference to ones destiny in God. If your vision is something that you can accomplish in your lifetime then there isn’t much to pass on to the next generation. Like how Moses had a vision of leading Israel into the promise land but Joshua had to carry it out. Or David had a vision of building the Temple but Solomon had to carry it out. There are many smaller purposes that we will carry out in our lifetime. Otherwise we would probably lose heart. But I am speaking of seeking the Lord for that which He has called us to that we will never see finished in our lifetime. A great purpose to which He has called us to. I think that many people never even try to splash out into that great adventure. Life is a vapor yet only what we do in this life for Christ will echo throughout eternity. So we better make the most of our short lives for His glory!

Or are you talking about our eschewed view of christianity?

There is a treasure in the church that we have not even tapped and we are the poorer for it. There are things we believe today that we think the church has always held to that isn’t so. Like a rapture of the church before the tribulation. That was something thought up by a scottish lady in the 18th century. She shared it with her pastor (Darby) who then brought it to the Keswick Conference. And we think it is a belief held by the Apostles themselves. We even propigate it to the world in movies. But I’m afraid that it is mere spiritual escapism with no traditional, historical, or scriptural basis. We tend to try to work backwords in our study of the church putting our spin on scripture and tradition so that the everything fits within the confines of our doctrine. We must start at the beginning of the church’s history and move forward. But we tend to go back to 1517 then just skip to the beginning. I have been guilty of this as well for I am a product of division, after division, after division etc. just as we all are.

BTW. The belief of the rapture before the tribulation period is only a minor heresy and not a damning one.

Damning heresies are wrong beliefs about the Godhead or eternal salvation. Most protestants are probably safe here.